US Air Force takes delivery of laser weapons

Preceding the deliveries, the company and the USAF Life Cycle Management Centre have conducted a series of successful tests on the air force’s first-ever palletised high-energy laser weapon.

The live-fire exercises took place over four consecutive days at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The H4 is a 10kWlaser weapon designed according to US military specifications, capable of being transported and installed in any location as needed.

Raytheon Technologies has now delivered four operational laser weapon systems to the USAF, with a total of eight supplied to the DoD.

The primary role of the laser weapon is to safeguard personnel and assets from short-range aerial threats.

Raytheon said the weapon system underwent rigorous testing as part of the USAF Test and Assessment plan.

This included multiple live-fire exercises, focusing on acquiring, targeting, tracking and neutralising drone targets in various attack scenarios, including short-range, swarm and long-range threats.

The palletised laser weapon system is compact enough to fit into the cargo bed of a pickup truck.

It consists of a high-energy laser weapon module, a long-range electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor that also serves as the beam director, thermal control, internal electrical power and targeting software.